Abine acquires T.A.C.O., a leading privacy add-on

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Abine, Inc., a provider of online privacy solutions, announced today that it has acquired the popular TACO Firefox Add-On from its author and will continue its development. TACO, short for “Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-out”, is a free browser add-on that allows any Internet user to opt-out from personally targeted advertising.

“Internet privacy is an endless arms race against those who wish to track and monitor users' online activities. We need services truly dedicated to keeping users one step ahead of those who want to track them online.”

“Enabling everyone to control and protect their online privacy is Abine’s mission, and TACO fits perfectly with this vision and our product,” - said Andrew Sudbury, co-founder of Abine. “ Users concerned about online privacy now simply click one button and instantly opt-out of over 100 intrusive behavioral ad-networks.”

TACO has been updated and integrated into the Abine Privacy Suite (http://www.getabine.com/preview/taco.php), allowing Abine users to seamlessly opt-out of intrusive advertising based monitoring of their Internet use. Users will have the option of using the new TACO version stand-alone, or enhancing it with additional features necessary for comprehensive online privacy.

The new version, TACO 3.0, has been upgraded both to permit opting-out of even more ad-networks and to block hundreds of other Web tracking technologies used by companies (including Google, AOL, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Microsoft), to collect, store and sell extremely personal information about individuals' Internet activity. The enhanced version includes an optional cookie display pop-up to provide visibility and control over online tracking. TACO 3.0 also adds support for Internet Explorer, making these protections available to Microsoft browser users for the first time.

"Internet privacy is an endless arms race against those who wish to track and monitor users' online activities. We need services truly dedicated to keeping users one step ahead of those who want to track them online.” said Christopher Soghoian, privacy evangelist and creator of TACO.

Corporations are forecast to spend $3.8 billion on targeted ads in 2011, resulting in unprecedented levels of technically sophisticated logging and intrusive tracking of individuals over months and years. Abine estimates that every day, 97% of Web users have their website visits and activities stored in an average of 25 different databases, usually without their knowledge or consent. Abine's innovative privacy solutions seek to make this user tracking more visible, to prevent excesses, and to give users new ways to quickly and easily control how much of their personal information is captured and stored online.

“With the viral success of TACO for firefox users, Chris Soghoian showed that web surfers were interested in exercising control over their interactions with ad networks. By integrating TACO into the Abine privacy suite and providing a version of IE users, Abine is providing consumers with key tools to ensure their online privacy,” said Jules Polonetsky, Director of the Future of Privacy Forum, and former Chief Privacy Officer of AOL.

Abine will continue to execute its strategy to create or acquire easy-to-use privacy technologies, making them available to the millions of Internet users demanding their right to privacy.

About Abine, Inc.

Abine, Inc., the online privacy company, is the leading provider of online privacy solutions for consumers. Abine's products and services allow regular people to regain control over their personal information while continuing to browse, interact and shop online. One of the company's first offerings, the Privacy Suite, is a browser Add-On that flushes intrusive cookies, shields contact information and separates online identities.